Article ID: CBB493486615

The Local versus the Global in the history of relativity: The case of Belgium (2020)

unapi

This article contributes to a global history of relativity, by exploring how Einstein’s theory was appropriated in Belgium. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, yet the early-twentieth-century Belgian context, because of its cultural diversity and reflectiveness of global conditions (the principal example being the First World War), proves well-suited to expose transnational flows and patterns in the global history of relativity. The attempts of Belgian physicist Théophile de Donder to contribute to relativity physics during the 1910s and 1920s illustrate the role of the war in shaping the transnational networks through which relativity circulated. The local attitudes of conservative Belgian Catholic scientists and philosophers, who denied that relativity was philosophically significant, exemplify a global pattern: while critics of relativity feared to become marginalized by the scientific, political, and cultural revolutions that Einstein and his theory were taken to represent, supporters sympathized with these revolutions.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB493486615/

Similar Citations

Article Raf de Bont; Simone Schleper; Hans Schouwenburg; (2017)
Conservation Conferences and Expert Networks in the Short Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB533655240/)

Book Thomas Preveraud; (2018)
Circulations savantes entre l'Europe et le monde: XVIIe-XXe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB625183281/)

Article Anderson, K. D.; (2009)
Weather Services at War (/isis/citation/CBB001321068/)

Article Harrison, Henrietta; (2012)
Rethinking Missionaries and Medicine in China: The Miracles of Assunta Pallotta, 1905--2005 (/isis/citation/CBB001202139/)

Article Mota, Elsa; Crawford, Paulo; Simões, Ana; (2009)
Einstein in Portugal: Eddington's Expedition to Principe and the Reactions of Portuguese Astronomers (1917--25) (/isis/citation/CBB000932112/)

Article Lozano, Sonia; Priego, Natalia; (2008)
Siete estudios sobre transmisión y herencia científica entre Europa y América Latina (1850-1940) (/isis/citation/CBB000932880/)

Article Abiko, Seiya; (2007)
Interchange between Physics and Philosophy in the Late-Meiji and Taisho Era Japan (/isis/citation/CBB000930006/)

Article Klein, Martin J.; (2010)
Paul Ehrenfest, Niels Bohr, and Albert Einstein: Colleagues and Friends (/isis/citation/CBB001036147/)

Article Gangui, Alejandro; Ortiz, Eduardo L.; (2008)
Einstein's Unpublished Opening Lecture for His Course on Relativity Theory in Argentina, 1925 (/isis/citation/CBB000831755/)

Chapter Gissis, Snait B.; (2011)
Lamarckian Problematics in Historical Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB001500082/)

Book Krassnitzer, Patrick; Overath, Petra; (2007)
Bevölkerungsfragen: Prozesse des Wissenstransfers in Deutschland und Frankreich (1870--1939) (/isis/citation/CBB001031988/)

Authors & Contributors
Onghena, Sofie
Schleper, Simone
Eve Haddow
Jim Specht
Emilie Dotte-Sarout
Thomas Prévéraud
Concepts
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Cross-national interaction
Transmission of ideas
Relativity
Physics
International cooperation
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
Taisho period (Japan, 1912-1926)
Meiji period (Japan, 1868-1910)
Modern
Enlightenment
Places
Belgium
Germany
France
United States
Latin America
Europe
Institutions
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Universidad de Buenos Aires
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment